Prosecutors in South Korea have descended in the offices of two local cryptocurrency exchanges due to surveys concerning the digital assets of the Kim Nam-Kuk legislator.
According to a report by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, a team of prosecutors from the Southern Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office made a descent into the Upbit and Bithumb cryptocurrency exchanges for transaction files and other documents.
Kim would use its digital active ingredients on Upbit and Bithumb.
The authorities’ raid immediately followed Kim’s resignation from his political party on May 14. His departure is linked to several allegations against him because of the allegedly suspect relations of crypto while working on the legislation on digital assets in May and November 2022.
According to an article on Facebook of the former legislator, he did not want to “grant” his colleagues member of the party with the controversy surrounding his cryptographic transactions. In the same article, he also said that accusing media reports had “false facts” and that he “would reveal the truth”.
Suspicious activity
A Korea Times’s May 8 report said Kim had liquidated more than $ 4 million in crypto before the financial action working group strengthens the “travel rule”. Kim would have supported a bill which would differentiate the tax on capital gains of 20% on cryptocurrencies from 2023 to 2025.
Kim would have claimed that he did not take his digital assets but rather to have transferred them to another exchange. The legislator said that he was not obliged to report such an activity.
The South Korean politician has had around 800,000 WEMIX coins in 2021 ($ 4.5 million), according to Yonhap reports.
Crypto exchange controversy
Bithumb, one of the exchanges in which Kim would have had his funds, was closely held by local regulators in recent months.
In December 2022, the largest shareholder manager of the exchange was found dead shortly after being accused of embezzlement and manipulation of stock prices. Less than a month later, Bithumb was under investigation by regulators and made a descent into his offices on January 10.
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On February 2, the owner of the scholarship was arrested by the South Korean authorities due to the accusations of embezzlement of funds and an arrest warrant, which included additional accusations of rights to rights, market manipulation and fraudulent transactions.
South Korean recuer
All these developments in South Korea have intervened while the country’s authorities have suppressed local cryptographic activity.
On April 24, the Bank of Korea – The Central Bank of South Korea – obtained the power to open investigations into business operators linked to cryptocurrencies. As part of this new power, banks will be able to request access to crypto transaction data from exchanges operating in the country.
Two days later, the legislators succeeded in the initial examination of the proposals of the regulations on cryptocurrencies. These new regulations include recommendations for determining the relatively severe sentence and to give the Financial Services Commission Authority to investigate and supervise any activity related to a “digital asset”.
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